I turned 40 years old at the height of COVID. Even after the lockdowns ended, a more sedentary lifestyle remained, and it was like my metabolism slowed down and kept slowing down after I hit that big 4-0.
In four years, I gained an astonishing forty pounds. 😳
I had become such a hermit in the past few years that I was able to keep the weight gain from most of the world. But I was ashamed, and I hated myself. You can see in pictures from our trip to New Orleans that I was trying to hide (and I was “only” 30lbs overweight then).
It wasn’t like I didn’t know I was gaining weight during this time. And it wasn’t like I wasn’t trying to lose those extra pounds during this time either. But my old tried-and-true way of losing weight, intermittent fasting, just wasn’t cutting it anymore. Neither was exercising. Was this a side effect of perimenopause? I don’t know, but it was like my body was determined to keep this new voluptuous shape.
At the beginning of this year, I knew I had to do something. I had seen ads for Hers weight loss program, so I decided to check it out.
I filled out an intake questionnaire, which included my medical history. Because my BMI at the time was 27 which is considered overweight, I qualified for their weight loss medications. They took into account the medications I’m currently on, and they recommended compounded GLP-1 injections.
What are compounded GLP-1s? GLP-1s are medications that are sold under brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy. Compounded GLP-1s contain the same active ingredient (semaglutide) as regular GLP-1s, but are not FDA-approved. They are made by compounding pharmacies, and became widely available when Ozempic and Wegovy went on the FDA shortage list. That is, the FDA unofficially gave compounding pharmacies permission to produce them while there was a shortage of these drugs. It also didn’t hurt that compounding pharmacies charged a fraction of what Ozempic and Wegovy cost.
(Coincidentally, just a couple of weeks after I placed my order with Hers, the FDA declared that there is no longer a shortage of Ozempic and Wegovy in the United States, and that compounding pharmacies must cease compounding GLP-1s. While some pharmacies have complied, others have gotten around this order by “customizing” their formulas, by adding an ingredient like B-12, or by tweaking the dosage.)
At the time I was checking out Hers, I did not know much about other compounding pharmacies and wasn’t sure I could trust them. (I now know there are some quite reputable ones that are much more affordable than Hers.) Although Hers compounded GLP-1 still isn’t FDA-approved, I knew they would use a reputable pharmacy because they’re a larger, publicly traded company. Additionally, I knew so many people who had successfully lost weight with Ozempic, my BMI was not high enough to quality for my insurance to cover a weight loss drug, and if I ordered compounded GLP-1 through Hers, it would cost $249/month (provided I pay for 6 months upfront).
I decided it was worth trying out. I asked J if he would gift me a six months supply as an early anniversary present. That was the goal: lose to 30-40 pounds in those 6 months.
I placed the order on a Wednesday, and received the medication on a Saturday. The medication itself was packaged in ice packs and the instructions told me to keep it refrigerated. There were 6 vials, one for each month. I also received a box of syringes and alcohol wipes, more than enough for six months.
My dosage instructions were to start out on a low dose and go up every 4 weeks, twice, and stay at that higher dose. (That higher dose was still not the highest therapeutic dose for Ozempic.) The instructions told me to throw out the vial at the end of each month, but I soon found out that you could use the leftover medication in the vial until it runs out — that’s how I ended up extending my medication to 7.5 months.
I immediately lost 5lbs in my first week, but I’m pretty sure that was mostly water weight. A lot of people talk about the side effects of Ozempic, and I have to admit that I experienced some too. The first was fatigue. In the beginning, I had to take a nap frequently after taking the shot. I experienced nausea too, but only when I first moved up to the higher dose. It got so bad that I messaged my doctor at Hers and he prescribed me Zofran (this helped tremendously). I had bad gas too, the type that gives you chest pains until you are finally able to burp.
I knew I might experience side effects so I timed my shots for Saturday evenings, so that I can have the whole of Sundays to recover, if need be. This turned out to be a good idea, and eventually I moved my shots to Friday evenings since my side effects were bad on day 2 too. Lucky for me, the side effects eventually went away.
GLP-1s do not work for everyone. But for those that do, it really is a miracle drug. The stubborn weight that I had been trying lose started coming off. It was weird, I swear that my eating habits did not change much — although I do love food, I do not eat a lot. I guess I just started eating a lot less than usual? I know that you’re still supposed to put in the work if you’re trying to lose weight on GLP-1s by eating right and exercising, but I was bad and I didn’t exercise. And I still lost weight. It was like whatever hormones that were keeping me from losing weight were reset.
I know 35lbs in 7.5 months doesn’t seems like a lot. There are Ozempic miracle stories of people losing 50, 60lbs in 6 months! But I’ve read that if you have less weight to lose, you lose weight slower. And although I’m still 5lbs away from my lowest weight, I’m happy where I’m at. And it’s been almost 3 months since I took my last shot and I’ve kept it off. 🙂
Some may see this method of weight loss as cheating. Perhaps it was, because all it took was a drug for me to lose weight. But I do believe this drug to be a miracle worker, something that worked when other methods failed, something that works for millions of other people. I believe this drug should be cheaper and more readily accessible. In the meantime, there are compounded versions available for $150-300/month. If you’re interested, I suggest you check out r/CompoundedSemaglutide and r/SemaglutideCompound.
